Picture this: Thousands of Earthlings waving at Saturn

People from 30 U.S. states and more than 40 other countries shared more than 1,400 images of themselves as part of the "Wave at Saturn" event organized on July 19. That was the day the Cassini orbiter turned back to snap a picture of Saturn and Earth. The shared images have been assembled into this collage representing Earth's disk. For the full-size view, check out http://bit.ly/waving-at-saturn

"Thanks to all of you, near and far, old and young, who joined the Cassini mission in marking the first time inhabitants of Earth had advance notice that our picture was being taken from interplanetary distances," Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a news release Wednesday. "While Earth is too small in the images Cassini obtained to distinguish any individual human beings, the mission has put together this collage so that we can celebrate all your waving hands, uplifted paws, smiling faces and artwork."

The mosaic is just one of the user-friendly projects resulting from Cassini's rare interplanetary photo op on July 19.

The imaging team for NASA's flagship mission to Saturn is still working on the big picture: a grand, full-color mosaic that will show the entire giant planet and its rings, with Earth as a pale blue dot in the background. "Our image processors are working on that every day," said Steve Mullins, spokesman for the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations, or CICLOPS, which is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

Mullins told NBC News that the Cassini mosaic should be released sometime between late August and late September.

Cassini's wide-angle camera captured Saturn's rings as well as Earth and the moon in the same frame on July 19. Earth appears as a blue dot at center right. In the full-resolution view, the moon can be seen as a fainter protusion off its right side. The separation can be seen more clearly in a narrow-angle view below.

By that time, another mosaic should be ready to show off as well: a collage showing the ringed planet that's built up from hundreds of Saturn-themed photos sent to Astronomers Without Borders. Even though the initial deadline has passed, there's still time to submit your photo for the mosaic using AWB's online form, says Mike Simmons, the organization's founder and president.

"Selfies with Saturn or anything related to it are great," he told NBC News. "We'll take 'em all. The idea is to reach out and do something with Saturn that's fun."

Meanwhile, Carolyn Porco, the head of the CICLOPS imaging team, is moving right along with "The Day the Earth Smiled," her effort to turn Cassini's photo op into a global consciousness-raising project.

Porco's "Earth Beheld" photo contest is now open for submissions: You have until Sept. 30 to enter photos with cosmic meaning that were taken on July 19, by using the online entry form. There's another contest in the works for musical compositions. The winning entries from both contests will be included in a digitally encoded "Message to the Milky Way" that will be broadcast to the rest of the galaxy from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.